Basketball Notebook

by Louis Nelson

RICHMOND, Va. Richmond guard Kevin Anderson dominated the men's basketball team Wednesday night, scoring 15 of his 20 points against the Colonials in the second half to help the Spiders earn a come-from-behind victory against GW. It's a sight that GW junior guard Tony Taylor has gotten used to seeing during his career.

"I think he's really crafty, he's a good player and at times, he just takes over," Taylor said. "There'll be times where he's not as much of a factor and then he just turns it on, and it's hard to stop that."

Getting hot against GW is something Anderson, the 2009-2010 Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, has been especially good at. He scored 24 points a year ago at the Robins Center for the then 25th-ranked Spiders in their 74-70 win over the Colonials, and 21 points in the Smith Center in Richmond's first game against GW last season, a 62-57 Spider win.

"The games with GW, as kind of a fan, have been our favorite, because they've been so competitive," Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said. "Kevin's been the main difference. We have a guy who's the best player in the league, or one of the best players in the league, to have the ball at the end of the game and make decisions, not turn the ball over and make shots. For this particular series, I think that's been the difference."

GW moving into meat of A-10 schedule

RICHMOND, Va. While GW may have opened its Atlantic 10 schedule with three-straight wins for the first time since 2005-2006, the Colonials' red-hot start may have been deceiving. Two of GW's three wins came against Fordham and Saint Joseph's, teams picked in the preseason to finish below the Colonials in the A-10 standings. GW's other A-10 win came against La Salle, picked to finish ninth in the conference, just one spot ahead of GW.

The true test of this GW team should begin in the coming weeks as the Colonials start to take on some of the better teams in the A-10. After facing St. Bonaventure Saturday, the Colonials will travel to Cincinnati next week to take on perennial conference power Xavier on the road, a team GW hasn't beaten since it went undefeated in conference play during the 2005-2006 season.

The Colonials will also take on Saint Louis, a team that GW beat in overtime last season at the Smith Center. GW will also take on Duquesne Feb. 2 on the road and Richmond again, this time at home.

GW will wrap up its season with perhaps the toughest stretch of its schedule. The Colonials will play home games against Temple, picked to finish first in the conference in preseason polls, and Dayton, picked to finish fourth, in two of its final three games, with a road date against Rhode Island sandwiched in between.